~~ Start of Something BIG ~~. Review on For One More Day - Mitch Albom

A Song of Life:

“You’re walking’ along the street, or you’re at a party

Or else you’re alone and then you suddenly dig

You’re lookin’ in someone’s eyes, you suddenly realize

That this could be the start of something big.”

She used to play that music every night. But once my father left, she never did again. The Bobby Darin album stayed on shelf. The record player collected dust. At first I thought she had changed her taste in music, the way we did as kids, at point thinking Johnnie Ray was good singer, but eventually thinking Gene Vincent was so much better. Later, I figured she didn’t want to be reminded of how the “something big” had backfired.

As it illustrates above, it deals with some family emotions, some traumas and some battles to overcome them.

Silent Moments of Life:*

This time the silence was longer. She said only one more thing before we hung up:

“Going back to something is harder than you think.”

I don’t think I could have broken my mother’s heart anymore if I tried.

Charley Benetto was always confused as he should go for an easily available love of his mother or he should try to grab some attention from his father. He always went ahead for something which he said, was not available to him and in this process, he ignored something which was a blessing to him.  He says, kids chase the love that eludes them and for him it was his father’s love.

It’s about Charley:

Charley Benetto is a broken man, his life destroyed by alcohol and regrets. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits rock bottom after discovering he won’t be invited to his only daughter’s wedding. And he decides to take his own life.

Charley takes a midnight ride to his small hometown: his final journey. But as he staggers into his old house, he makes an astonishing discovery. His mother – who died eight years earlier – is there, and welcomes Charley home as if nothing had ever happened.

What follows is the one seemingly ordinary day so many of us yearn for: a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets and to seek forgiveness.

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. The book revolves around this theory. No, it’s not an inspiration book nor it’s some self help book. It’s a story of a person who wants to die. He wants to die because he thought there’s nothing left in his life. He has lost his relatives, friends and money. He is frustrated and he decides to kill himself. There comes an incident where he was given one more day to live his life. This time, he is more open, more vocal and more mature. He understand life better than what he had loved till now.

Mother-Son Relationship:*

She wasn’t easy on me, don’t get me wrong. She smacked me. She scolded me. She punished me. But she loved me. She really did. She loved me falling off a swing set. She loved me stepping on hers floors with muddy shoes. She loved me through vomit and snot and bloody knees. She loved me coming and going, at my worst and at my best. She had a bottomless well of love for me. Her only flaw was that she didn’t make me work for it.

A mother understands what a child does not say. Her heart is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. This book also portrays a beautiful relationship between a mother and a son. It classifies incidents when mother stood for the son and also the incidents where son couldn’t dare to do so. It gives you a feeling that mothers are mothers, be it in India or be it in USA.

Notice your Life:*

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.

Who should Read?*

Some trivial proceedings of a family might have a great value. Read it if you don’t want to miss those moments which adds value to an individual’s life.